Rinku Hooda Dedicates Asian Para Games Gold To Late Mother, Opens Up On Grief And Injury | EXCLUSIVE

Rinku Hooda won gold at the Asian Para Games. (Instagram)

When Rinku Hooda stepped onto the runway in Aichi-Nagoya, his mind, he says, was empty. He wasn't calculating the medal or watching the scoreboard. He was thinking of one person.

"I just wanted to win a medal for my mother," the para javelin ace said in a conversation with Sports Now.

His season-best 65.11m on October 19 saw him edge past compatriot Ajeet Singh (65.02m) by only nine centimetres. It was the narrowest of margins, but also gave India a one-two finish. It also saw him complete his set at the Asian Para Games. He won bronze in 2018, silver in 2022 and now gold.

For a man who had stood on the lower steps of this podium twice, the top step had been a long time coming.

The gold medal in Japan came at the end of perhaps the hardest phase of his career. Hooda lost his mother about two months before the Games, and it affected his preparations.

"I was getting disturbed for the past two months after my mother's death," he said.

Then his body let him down. When he finally returned to training, he injured his…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/sports